There’s a dangerous trend in modern sports and our beloved supercross/motocross is not immune to this absolute waste of our time. I’m talking about the reporters that interview a coach, athlete or in our case, a rider on the podium.
There’s a dangerous trend in modern sports and our beloved supercross/motocross is not immune to this absolute waste of our time. I’m talking about the reporters that interview a coach, athlete or in our case, a rider on the podium.
How many times do we have to hear “We gave it 100%” or “My team is great” or “My bike worked great and the tires hooked up?” It’s simply asinine that the major networks employ these people to do this job and think they are getting their monies worth. What kind of information are we getting that makes our watching any more enjoyable? The sideline reporters (and thankfully, some networks have axed this position) offer us nothing of substance during the game, they report on things we already know! We see the QB is out of the game with a knee because we just watched some 300lb d-lineman fall on him. Thanks for that. The interviews in between periods of hockey players just make our eyes glaze over and start to wonder about tomorrow night’s dinner. The players are asked a benign, non evasive answer and give the reporter a clichéd answer about trying really hard and that he’s feeling really good tonight.
Look at our sport. When was the last time a rider on the podium actually offered anything that was mildly interesting? I like Erin Bates, she’s a great girl and it’s not her fault because the sound bite has to fit in a 20 second window in the telecast but I wonder why even bother with this exercise? The riders say nothing, or in the case of a rookie guy, they remind us of why they are just a kid in the first place with some rambling answer. Don’t get me wrong the interrogation of Stewart at A1 after he crashed by Bates is EXACTLY what is all good in the sideline guy..or girl in this case.. But those moments are rare and if anything, make us realize that the podium interviews are so lame.
This past weekend in Atlanta we heard nothing of substance from Christophe Pourcel. Partly because of his French background and partly because Erin asked him if he knew his teammate had stalled and that he was in first. His accent was strong but wouldn’t the viewer have liked to hear about his miraculous comeback from a pelvis injury and his thoughts on American racing. The interview with Reed was the very standard what he needed to do to win and beat James Stewart. The thanking of the sponsors and off we go. Maybe I’m a cynic, maybe I’m too close to the scene but I fail to see how these interviews add anything to the show.
I suppose they are there for the viewer to put a face on the helmet that they just saw out there but really, it ends up being a shill for the sponsors and a swig of some energy drink (or at least out of a bottle that looks like an energy drink). If you’re a new person to the sport, I’m not sure you would learn anything about the rider, track or race from the current interviews. Why not show some racing or maybe cut back all the podium interviews and add that time up and put it into a feature of a different guy each week. Some sort of deal where the viewer can really see what a guy is like and see his house, car, dog-whatever. I just think that the person doing the telecasts (in this case, Feld Entertainment) needs to think outside the box and get away from the traditional way of handling race winners. Or maybe just the main event winners get some podium time. I’m not exactly sure what the answer is, but one thing I do know for sure is the effect on the viewer that the director is hoping to get with sponsor shout-outs isn’t making anyone rush out and buy anything. Because they stopped paying attention.
Your thoughts?
